Wise Words From Gabrielle Giffords; Some Far-Right Figures Say ‘War Is Here’–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Sept. 11, 2025

Indy Digest: Sept. 11, 2025

Here is the latest news, as of this writing, about the shooting yesterday. Colorado Public Radio reports:

The teenager who opened fire at his classmates before shooting himself was “radicalized” online, according to authorities.

Police began receiving 911 calls about an active shooter inside the halls of Evergreen (Colo.) High School around 12:30 p.m., Wednesday—lunchtime for many of the students. In the minutes that followed, (the 16-year-old shooter), who had ridden the bus to the school that morning, fired multiple rounds in multiple places both inside and behind the school, shooting two students before turning the gun on himself. He died later at the hospital on Wednesday night. …

“He had to keep reloading. He would fire and reload, fire and reload, fire and reload. This went on and on, and as he did that, he tried to find new targets and he came up against a roadblock on many of those doors. He couldn’t get to those kids, so there’s not enough to be said for the work that the teachers, the coaches, the staff, the students,” Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office public information officer Jacki Kelley said. “Lots of kids ran, but the ones who didn’t were locked down and they were being cared for. So really, really proud of those people.”

“I have to believe when you bring a gun to school and you continue to fire and reload and fire and reload that you are on a mission. We are grateful that he was less successful, but we’re devastated that he was successful at all,” she said.

The two victims were sent to St. Anthony Hospital. One is in critical condition, and neither have been released from the hospital.

Perhaps that’s not the shooting you were thinking about. Apologies for the confusion, but according to a March Pew Research Center report, 17,927 people in the United States were murdered with firearms in 2023. That’s an average of 49 people per day.

In all likelihood, the shooting you were thinking about is the one that, by far, has been getting the most attention: the murder of Charlie Kirk. After all, public shootings of speakers at colleges are rare in the U.S. these days. School shootings, alas, are not.

What is there to say about Kirk’s murder? Gabrielle Giffords—the former Arizona congresswoman who survived being shot point-blank in the head during a 2011 mass shooting in which six people died, and another 12 people, besides Giffords, were injured—summed up the situation beautifully in an article for Time magazine. Here’s how she summarized her thoughts on X/Twitter

I mourn for Charlie Kirk’s family. I didn’t agree with almost anything he said, but he had a right to go on a work trip and return safely to his wife and two young children.

Like all Americans, he deserved to be safe from gun violence.

Just as Melissa Hortman, the Speaker of the Minnesota State Legislature, deserved to be safe at home with her husband. Just as President Trump had the right to campaign without fear of being assassinated. Just as I had the right to meet with my constituents safely on January 8, 2011. Our stories are unique, but what Charlie Kirk, President Trump, Melissa Hortman and I all have in common is that someone who wanted to kill us had a gun.

It is physically very hard for me to speak due to my injuries from getting shot, and after watching yet another political shooting violently steal someone’s life before our eyes, it’s even harder to find words. So I want to speak plainly to my former colleagues in Congress: Do something. Take action. Pray also if you want, but understand: your job is action.

I call on my colleagues in Washington to show courage, not cowardice. I call on them to do the single most important thing they can for their constituents: keep them safe.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• A couple of Charlie Kirk-related matters: First, a professor of public affairs, writing for The Conversation, breaks down who Kirk was, how he gained prominence, and what his legacy may be: “Charlie Kirk was a conservative activist, author and media personality who rose to prominence unusually early. Raised in the Chicago suburbs, he made national headlines at 18 for founding Turning Point USA, a conservative youth movement. Kirk only briefly attended college. Instead, he chose to devote himself full time to conservative organizing. That decision became central to the mythos surrounding him: He represented a choice among promising young conservatives to skip higher education in protest of the alleged left-leaning bias of universities. Over the next decade, Kirk grew into a national figure. Beginning in 2016, he frequently spoke at Trump rallies, which helped him to build an extensive media profile.”

• Next is a very concerning Wired piece, headlined “‘War Is Here’: The Far-Right Responds to Charlie Kirk Shooting With Calls for Violence.” Some details: “Many far-right influencers and Republican officials immediately blamed the left for carrying out the shooting. In some extremist groups, members called for civil war and violent retribution. ‘This is a war, this is a war, this is a war,’ said Alex Jones, the influencer and school-shooting conspiracy theorist, during a livestream on his Infowars channel. ‘For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,’ said President Donald Trump in a taped address posted to his Truth Social account. ‘This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in the country today.’ Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes, who had his sentence for seditious conspiracy with regards to the January 6 Capitol riot commuted by Trump earlier this year, announced on Infowars that it was time to restart his militia group in order to provide public protection for figures like Kirk.”

• On this 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, CNN published a piece about a group that’s working to gather and publish previously unseen images and videos from that terrible day: “The 9/11 Media Preservation Group—which publishes its work, in part, on the ‘Between Two Towers’ YouTube page and solicits and discusses material on Reddit–is run by Andrew, who asked CNN to use only his first name, citing concerns that using his last name could negatively impact his other, full-time work. He also spoke about security and privacy concerns regarding his 9/11 work. ‘I’ve always kind of viewed 9/11 as just kind of like a puzzle, in the sense that there’s just so many individual stories, but they all come together in some way,’ Andrew said. … He runs the archive group in his spare time, but it’s almost like a second full-time job. ‘Lately, after talking to more and more survivors and witnesses, it’s become just preserving that memory,’ he said. ‘I’m learning that a lot of these people, they never talked about it or they never thought that their perspective was important. Now it’s just kind of become the objective to preserve that, I guess, or at least to be able to share that.’”

• Gustavo Arellano, a Los Angeles Times columnist (and a friend of the Independent), wrote a powerful piece headlined “I’m a U.S. citizen. I’m always going to carry my passport now. Thanks, Supreme Court.” It’s definitely worth a read. A snippet: ““In a 6-3 vote, the justices lifted the temporary restraining order as the ACLU lawsuit proceeds. L.A.’s long, hot deportation summer will spill over to the fall and probably last as long as Trump wants it to. The decision effectively states that those of us with undocumented family and friends — a huge swath of Southern California and beyond — should watch over our shoulders, even if we’re in this country legally. And even if you don’t know anyone without papers, watch out if you’re dark-skinned, speak English with an accent or wear guayaberas or huaraches. Might as well walk around in a T-shirt that says, ‘DEPORT ME, POR FAVOR.’”

• The state has taken a major step to protect the rights of women—nationwide—who receive abortion pills. The New York Times says: “The bill, approved by wide margins in the State Assembly Wednesday night and the Senate Tuesday, is expected to be signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. It would allow health care providers to mail abortion pills with only a minimum of identifying information: Medication labels and paperwork in the packages could omit the name of the patient, prescriber and pharmacist. The legislation is expected to have broad national impact because a majority of medication abortion services across the country use pharmacies based in California to dispense and ship the medication. The measure is intended to make it harder for states with abortion bans to develop evidence to make legal cases against doctors and others operating under shield laws that were adopted by many states to protect abortion pill prescribers after the Supreme Court revoked the national right to abortion. It is also intended to reassure women in states with bans who seek abortions and who may be afraid to obtain prescription pills, fearing they could be identified by the authorities if their name is on the bottle.”

• Today’s recall news involves … frozen veggies! USA Today reports: “The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced an expanded recall of frozen vegetables amid an ongoing salmonella outbreak that has sickened 11 people and hospitalized four. The Chetak LLC Group first initiated a recall on multiple lots of its frozen sprouted beans on July 16 after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) linked the products to a multi-state salmonella outbreak. The recall has since been expanded twice: once on Aug. 22 for mixed frozen vegetable products and again on Sept. 8 to cover a wider spread of beans and fruit and vegetable mixes. All of the impacted products were from the Deep brand and were distributed nationwide through retail locations and mail orders, according to the FDA notice. An investigation is ongoing.”

• And finally … a little personal professional news (if that makes ANY sense): The Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation’s Media Hall of Fame has announced its next slate of inductees. KESQ News Channel 3 reports: “The third annual Hall of Fame ceremony will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 24, 2026, at the Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa, 41000 Bob Hope Drive. Laurilie Jackson, reporter and anchor at KESQ and journalism educator at College of the Desert, will emcee the event. The following honorees will be inducted: Jimmy Boegle, founding editor at the Coachella Valley Independent; Larry Bohannan, golf writer at The Desert Sun; Lina Robles, co-host of morning radio show ‘El Show del Grenas’ on … La Poderosa; (and) Ric and Rozene Supple (posthumously), radio station owners and philanthropists. In addition, a number of local journalists will be honored with Journalist of the Year and Rising Star awards.”

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